Existing liquid fuel burning apparatuses like lanterns, lamps, and torches are plagued with fuel handling issues, including spills of flammable material, subsequent wicking and transfer to clothing and hands, and other types of difficulties, messes, and hazards. Typical liquid fuel burning systems, because of the flammable nature of the fuel, cannot be refueled without first extinguishing the flame. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission tracks incidents associated with the use of outdoor torch products and details slip hazards with spilled fuel, ingestion hazards of the fuel, accidental absorption of the fuel into the housing, and accidental fires.
Wax burning systems, such as candles, lend themselves to incomplete fuel consumption, especially of wax not in close proximity to the flame In larger candles, this can be seen as the flame slowly bores a hole down through the candle. Existing wax-based solutions sometimes rely on multiple wick systems; however, they too fail to consume all of the wax fuel and self-extinguish prematurely. Wax burning systems that do consume the totality of the wax require the flame to travel down as the wax fuel is consumed.
Some smaller, indoor applications of wax burners are available, but they too fail in several regards. Specifically, in the event a volatile active ingredient is desired, the existing solutions require almost 45 minutes to develop a completely melted pool of wax. Similarly, because the systems use primarily radiant energy from the candle to melt the wax, the diameter of the wax pool is limited and restricted. Also, the surface temperature of the wax pool is lower than ideal because the source of heat is fully buried at the bottom of the wax pool, meaning the full mass of the melted fuel must increase in temperature before an increase in volatile active ingredient is possible. Finally, previous executions fail to segregate any of the melt pool surface from the burning flame, resulting in air currents that preferentially move the volatilized active toward and into the flame, lowering the actual delivery of the active ingredient to the surrounding environment and reducing the product efficacy. For wax burning systems intending to deliver a volatile active ingredient to the air (like a fragrance, insect repellent, medicinal, or physiological active), there is still a need for faster melt pool development, increased surface temperature of that pool, larger melt pools, and segregation of that pool from the flame resulting in faster, more effective, and more complete delivery of the active ingredient.